Chapter 14 - Richard’s Price for the Truth
Richard refused to say where he was.
He also refused to speak if Dominic remained in the room.
Claire almost laughed.
“Richard, you are calling me from a blocked number after helping my father accuse me of stealing money that never moved.”
Her voice stayed calm.
“You do not get to set many conditions.”
“I can give you Rebecca.”
Dominic’s expression did not change.
Claire’s did.
“You just said Rebecca paid Danner.”
“I can prove it.”
“How?”
“I kept records.”
“Of course you did.”
Richard sounded offended.
“I am an accountant.”
Claire looked at Nathaniel.
Nathaniel wrote two words on his legal pad.
Keep talking.
Claire leaned back.
“What do you want?”
“Protection.”
“From Charles?”
“From all of them.”
“All of whom?”
Richard did not answer.
Claire’s skin tightened.
There were still people inside the story she did not know about.
“Where are the records?”
“I will tell you when I am safe.”
“You were willing to fabricate records against me this morning.”
“I did not fabricate them.”
Claire’s anger sharpened.
“You presented them.”
“Yes.”
“That makes the distinction less impressive.”
Richard exhaled.
“Charles gave me a packet.”
“You expected me to believe a CFO could not identify a fake transaction prefix?”
Silence.
Claire pressed harder.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you go along with it?”
“Because Charles told me if you opened Anne’s trust, everything from fifteen years ago would be examined.”
“Everything should be examined.”
“Easy for you to say.”
Claire stared at the phone.
“My mother is dead.”
Richard stopped breathing on the other end.
“Do not tell me this is difficult for you.”
“I did not kill Anne.”
“You helped erase what happened.”
“Yes.”
The admission landed heavily.
Nathaniel stopped writing.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Claire forced herself to keep her voice steady.
“Tell me about Danner.”
Richard hesitated.
“Rebecca knew him through her father.”
“Her father?”
“Gerald Price owned a freight brokerage.”
Claire knew the name vaguely.
Price Brokerage had failed years ago.
“Did Anne know?”
“Yes.”
“Is that what Rebecca meant when she said they were competitors?”
“Partly.”
Richard continued.
“Anne was trying to move Whitmore business away from Price Brokerage because their invoices were inflated.”
“Inflated by how much?”
“Between eight and fourteen percent.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Another theft.
Another layer.
“Who received the excess?”
“Some went to Gerald.”
“Some went back to Charles.”
“Kickbacks?”
“Yes.”
Dominic swore under his breath.
Claire barely heard him.
“How long?”
“About three years.”
“Before my mother died.”
“Yes.”
“So Rebecca knew Charles because her father was paying him.”
Richard said nothing.
“Richard.”
“Yes.”
Claire felt nauseated.
The affair had not begun as romance.
It had grown inside a financial fraud Anne was trying to stop.
“What did Rebecca pay Danner to do?”
Richard’s voice dropped.
“She told him to scare Anne.”
Claire went still.
“Scare her how?”
“Make the car unreliable.”
“That is not an answer.”
“She wanted Anne to think someone could reach her anywhere.”
Claire’s fingers went cold.
“Did Rebecca tell him to cut the brake line?”
“I was not there for the conversation.”
“Then how do you know she paid him?”
“Because I processed the cash.”
“How much?”
“Twenty thousand.”
“To Danner?”
“Yes.”
“From where?”
“A Bell Harbor operating account.”
Claire stared at Nathaniel.
Rebecca had used Anne’s own money to pay the man who sabotaged her car.
“What happened after the crash?”
Richard was quiet for so long Claire thought the call had dropped.
Then he spoke.
“Rebecca panicked.”
“Charles panicked more.”
“Why?”
“Because Anne had told him she was going to the authorities.”
“So he knew what the crash would look like.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know about Danner before she died?”
Another pause.
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“Richard.”
“He knew Rebecca wanted Anne frightened.”
Claire closed her eyes.
The room disappeared for a moment.
“What exactly did he know?”
“He knew she hired Danner to tamper with the car.”
Martha made a broken sound.
Madison covered her mouth.
Emily’s video screen had gone completely still.
Claire heard only her own heartbeat.
“Before the crash?”
“Yes.”
“Did he stop her?”
“No.”
“Did he tell my mother?”
“No.”
Dominic stood so abruptly his chair moved backward.
Claire lifted one hand.
Not yet.
She needed the rest.
“Why would Charles allow that?”
“Because he believed Danner would damage the ignition system.”
“Not the brakes?”
“That is what he says.”
“What did Danner say?”
“I never asked him directly.”
“You paid him after the crash.”
Silence.
Claire’s voice hardened.
“Didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand.”
“For what?”
“To leave Maryland.”
Claire stood.
Richard rushed on.
“I told you I did not kill her.”
“You paid the man connected to her sabotaged car to disappear.”
“Charles ordered it.”
“And you obeyed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because by then I had falsified loan certifications for him.”
“If Charles went down, I went with him.”
Claire stared at the phone.
There it was.
Not loyalty.
Not family.
Mutual blackmail.
A group of people tied together because each knew enough to destroy the others.
“Where are your records?” Nathaniel asked.
Richard heard the voice.
“Who is that?”
“My lawyer.”
“I said alone.”
“No.”
Claire’s voice went flat.
“You said without Dominic.”
“You got your condition.”
“Now give me proof.”
Richard breathed heavily.
“Pier Nine.”
Dominic looked up sharply.
Claire asked, “What about it?”
“There is an old Whitmore maintenance building there.”
“I know it.”
“Locker room in the back.”
“Locker fourteen.”
“Combination?”
“Anne’s birthday.”
Claire stared.
“You used my mother’s birthday as the combination to hide evidence about her death?”
Richard sounded ashamed.
“I knew Charles would never remember it.”
The cruelty of that logic left Claire speechless.
“When did you put the records there?”
“Years ago.”
“What records?”
“Copies of payment ledgers.”
“Danner’s cash receipt.”
“Internal emails.”
“And the original Bell Harbor transfer authorization.”
Nathaniel leaned forward.
“The one that supposedly moved Anne’s interest?”
“Yes.”
Claire’s pulse jumped.
“Why keep it?”
“Insurance.”
“Against Charles?”
“Against Rebecca.”
“Which one were you more afraid of?”
Richard answered without hesitation.
“Rebecca.”
A sound came through the phone.
A door slamming.
Richard stopped.
“Richard?”
He whispered, “Someone found me.”
The line went dead.
Claire immediately called back.
Disconnected.
Dominic was already moving.
Claire stepped in front of him.
“Where are you going?”
“Pier Nine.”
“Not without me.”
“No.”
Claire laughed once.
“We are not doing this again.”
“Claire, if Richard gave that location under pressure, it could be a trap.”
“Then you need the person who knows the building.”
“I know Pier Nine.”
“You know where it is.”
“I know which side door sticks in wet weather, which corridor floods, and which alarm sensor has been broken since 2019 because I have submitted seven repair requests Charles ignored.”
Dominic stared at her.
Claire picked up her coat.
“You wanted me to trust evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go get it.”
Pier Nine was almost empty at dusk.
The main warehouse had been closed for renovation six months earlier.
The maintenance building sat behind stacks of unused containers near the water.
Dominic brought two security men.
Claire brought Nathaniel.
Nathaniel did not look pleased about becoming part of a waterfront evidence retrieval.
“I went to law school for a reason,” he muttered.
Claire almost smiled.
The side door stuck exactly as she predicted.
She lifted it slightly before pulling.
It opened.
Inside, the building smelled of rust and damp concrete.
Locker fourteen stood at the far end of a narrow room.
Claire entered Anne’s birthday.
The lock clicked.
Her hand shook as she opened the door.
Inside was a plastic document case.
Nathaniel exhaled.
“Do not touch the contents yet.”
Claire lifted the entire case by its handle.
Then the lights went out.
Dominic’s men moved instantly.
One pushed Claire behind a concrete pillar.
A crash came from the front room.
Someone had slammed the exterior door.
Nathaniel whispered something Claire could not hear.
Then smoke began curling beneath the locker-room door.
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“Fire.”
Dominic turned toward the corridor.
The front exit was already filling with smoke.
Claire looked toward the rear wall.
“There is another way out.”
“Where?”
“Old loading hatch.”
She ran to a steel cabinet mounted against the wall.
Dominic grabbed her arm.
“What are you doing?”
“Trusting twelve years of ignored maintenance.”
She kicked the bottom panel.
It gave way.
Behind it was a narrow service door that had been covered when the building layout changed.
Claire had found it years earlier during an insurance inspection.
One of Dominic’s men forced it open.
Cold harbor air rushed inside.
They emerged behind the building as flames appeared through the front windows.
Someone had poured accelerant near the entrance.
Nathaniel clutched the document case to his chest.
Sirens were already approaching.
Dominic looked at Claire.
“You memorized a blocked service exit.”
Claire coughed.
“I do household matters.”
For the first time in two days, Dominic laughed.
Then Claire saw movement near the water.
A figure running between containers.
Dominic’s security men started after him.
Claire shouted, “Wait.”
The figure turned once.
Streetlight caught his face.
Paul Danner.
The man who sabotaged Anne’s car.
He disappeared behind a row of containers before anyone reached him.
But he had made one mistake.
He had come personally to destroy the evidence.
May you like
And a security camera Claire had fought Charles to install three years earlier was pointed directly at the lane he used to escape.
